Halloween, Progress & Pregnancy Woes

Kyle was so interested in Halloween this year. As every treater came to the door, he had to check them out with a big grin on his face. He was even trying to reopen the door after they left (scary, since he can unlock the door too now). Most of the night, he sat perched near the front door, staring out the sidelights, or in the front dining room, looking out the window. He just had to be part of the action. He also got to go down part of the block to hand out cards and stickers to his little friends. Here he is in a little overall outfit I made for him, in “Ugly Doll” fashion.

Progress
Kyle is making some great strides in development again this week. He’s been trying to let go of things and stand on his own, but still gets a little scared. Well last night, he kept going from sitting to almost standing upright, over and over again. He was so proud of himself, as were we. It was hard to get pictures of him doing that on the camera, so I don’t have any to share

He’s also continuing to work on sounds and words. The latest addition is Box, quite a complex word for him, but he really loves “K”-like sounds, and X is a good substitute for K. And of course hearing him sing Old MacDonald is just the cutest thing ever. E, I, E, I, O – Duck, Quack Quack. He’s just so cute!!!

Kyle is getting better at following commands, particularly cleaning up, and bringing items to mommy. He used to pick his toys up constantly, but got out of the habit, so it’s nice to see that returning. He also helped daddy put all of his clean clothes in the basket. In addition, he’s getting more coordinated in helping to put his clothes on and take them off. He can’t put his socks on, but he will set them on his feet. And he loves doing the velcro on his shoes. His other big responsibility is helping with his medicine. He’s such a big boy now that when we hook up the syringe to his feeding tube, he insists on pushing it down, LOL. He also knows how his tubing connects to his feeding pump, but he isn’t strong/coordinated enough to open the feeding cap, and insert the tube properly, so we still help. I’m so proud of him!

Pregnancy Woes
Well, at my Perinatologist appointment on Friday, we found out that my cervix had shrunk from 5cm to 3.7cm in 3 weeks. 3.7 is still within the range of normal, but the drastic change was a bit of a concern. In addition, I’ve been averaging around 20 contractions per day, plus general BH irritation contractions. Activity picked up on Saturday night, despite being on modified bedrest. The baby dropped low and was kicking my cervix, causing more contractions than normal. They were timing around 15min apart, so we called L&amp and off we went. Once there, they manually checked my cervix, which hadn’t noticeably changed (thank goodness). So they put me on fluids and gave me an ambien to help me rest. The contractions at first were sporadic but close, some 5min apart, some 15, some a little more. But given that it was more than just irritation (Braxton Hicks) contractions, my OB kept me overnight for observation. They released me the Sunday morning on complete bed rest for the duration of the pregnancy, or until they decide otherwise.

So, I’m 22 weeks, and on complete bed rest – which isn’t easy to accept having a toddler, but we’ll do what we must. My Mother in law has offered to come up and stay with us for a little bit, and should be arriving today. After she’s gone, we’re going to work with friends/neighbors to come in on Tuesdays & Thursdays to help out. Karl works from home the other days, so it’s not going to be as terrible as it could be. In addition, the wonderful moms from my Mothers & More group have offered to bring in dinner one night a week. The support is just overwhelming, and I’m so thankful to have friends to help, since I don’t have family in the immediate area.

My only major concern, is that Kyle starts EI Preschool in January (4, 1/2 days/week) I just want to make sure he’s getting the care/attention he needs in that area. And unless we can get the school director and nurse to visit us here, Karl will have to do all of those planning meetings, plus the evaluations with the therapists without me. I’m confident that he can, it’s just that this has been my hands on area, so I’m nervous.